If you’re in a specialist area, knowing the consultants who specialize in your sector and your locality isn’t a bad idea. Get to know them by bumping into them [at meetings]. It’s helpful if you have a few friends in the business, so keep an open door with search firms. This won’t get you jobs, but it might get you exposure. 

Know the right ways to contact recruiters, and do it quickly and efficiently. They’ll appreciate that. Don’t insist on a meeting. Recruiters aren’t paid to talk to you. You can send a personal email if you get their address, but you must remember that recruiters receive hundreds of e-mails, and differentiating yourself is probably the [best way to stand out]. Being referred by someone else can raise your visibility quickly and efficiently.

Register with the search firm of choice database, and also the ones the search firm recommends or belongs to. We list searches that are currently in process at member firms, so you can indicate any interest you have in those.

If you’re of interest to a firm, it will call you, but don’t be disappointed if you don’t hear back. Candidates become unhappy when they don’t receive attention from search firms, but this gets back to that same issue—we aren’t employment agencies.

Recruiters (a.k.a. headhunters) work for the employer. Often companies only work with headhunters when they have a position they find difficult to fill and/or they need to keep the search process confidential. Many employers have very specific needs (i.e. they want someone from their industry or someone who has worked with their customers.) 

To find qualified candidates, most recruiters develop a database of potential candidates. We also network, do research, and occasionally, we may advertise the position. For a typical search, we contact 80 to 100 potential candidates and screen them to find a few that meet our client’s specific needs. Ultimately, only one is hired.

We can’t seem to get away from this idea that recruiters represent candidates. People think we’re employment agencies, but we don’t represent candidates who are looking. We’re part of the management consulting profession, and we’re retained by companies as consultants to find candidates. We advise companies on how to strengthen themselves by finding the right people. You should send a résumé to an executive recruiter and wait for a phone call. Once you have conducted your research and you have found a recruiter that you want to work with, you will need to figure out how to communicate with them. Some recruiters don´t expect or want phone calls and will contact you. Others do like you to check in periodically, but when will being enthusiastic turn into being annoying?

Remember, you will want to be in contact with the recruiter when you have new information about yourself, keeping him up-to-speed on new information—such as new contact information, updates to your résumé such as job changes or new accomplishments. You should also establish with the executive recruiter what kind of information they are interested in and what manner of communication is appropriate.

Do they work best by receiving information by phone, fax, e-mail? How often do they want to hear from you? Some executive recruiters like to be informed of all sorts of information about an industry that may not be related directly to a specific job candidate or job opening.

Turning down a job offer is a big problem. Sometimes this happens because the search firm hasn’t investigated carefully enough whether the candidate was looking at other offers. The best way to find this out is to ask.

The candidate has his or her own interest at heart — and quite rightfully. Last year, if you didn’t know if a candidate was looking at three other offers, you should have assumed it. Sometimes it happens after a contract has been signed and the candidate doesn’t show up on the first day of work. The search firm has to move fast, but it’s very frustrating when your candidate receives an offer and at the last moment, turns it down because he or she was looking at other possibilities.

How frequent are counteroffers? They are another reason why people won’t move. Some candidates use a search to leverage their position with their companies. It’s a very unwise thing to do, because you mark your card with the search community and the employer. They’ll remember that you held them over a bit of a barrel.

What are some of the biggest mistakes candidates make? Claiming degrees that aren’t valid, of course. Serious candidates shouldn’t try to hoodwink the search community. It’s a complete no-no to lie. Lying causes huge problems with clients. They’ll fire even senior managers for lying, and they’ll drop candidates who lie like a hot brick.